Critical Race Theory and the Black Radical Tradition: engaging with structural racism in education

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Warmington, Professor Sabina Vaught | In the context of a global uprising for racial justice and the expansion of movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, universities have the opportunity and obligation to address structural racism. In the UK the backlash to these efforts has been swift. In October of 2020, members of Parliament attacked Critical Race Theory (CRT) and any institution that teaches it. Since then, CRT has entered into popular conversation in relation to schooling in the UK. But what does CRT really say about education and schooling? What connection does CRT have to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and global Black radical traditions?

LSE EmbRace and LSE’s Eden Centre invite Sabina Vaught and Paul Warmington to engage in a dialogue on the topic of Critical Race Theory and education.

Meet our speakers and chair

Sabina Vaught is Professor and Inaugural Chair of the new Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading in the School of Education at the University of Pittburgh. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020, Professor Vaught was scholar-in-residence at The Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. At the University of Oklahoma, she established the Carceral Studies Consortium. In her scholarly work, Professor Vaught draws on a constellation of knowledge traditions that help make sense of insurgent and counterinsurgent movements in education: feminisms, the Black radical tradition, Indigenous studies, and legal studies/Critical Race Theory. Her most recent book, Compulsory: Education and the Dispossession of Youth in a Prison School (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), is an ethnographic study inside a U.S. state juvenile prison schooling system.

Paul Warmington is Professor in the Department for Education Studies, University of Warwick. Professor Warmington has taught, written and researched on issues of race, class, education and social justice for over thirty years. He was one of the first UK academics to explore Critical Race Theory and has written about CRT's development in the British context. He has worked in higher education since 2000, teaching, researching and writing extensively on sociological and cultural aspects of education. Prior to this, Professor Warmington taught for eleven years in further education, specialising in English and in Black Studies. He teaches at BA, Masters and doctoral levels. His recent writing focuses race equality and education policy, and vocational education

Akile Ahmet is the Senior Academic Developer for Inclusive Education in LSE’s Eden Centre. Central to Dr Ahmet’s work is the implementation of LSE’s Inclusive Education Action Plan under LSE’s new Race Equity Framework. She was previously a Senior Lecturer in the sociology of race and racism at Middlesex University where she developed, taught and led modules on race and racism, deconstructing sociology and race and social justice.

More about this event

This event takes place on the 56th anniversary of Malcolm X's speech delivered at LSE on 11 February, 1965, and marks LSE EmbRace launching its inaugural By Any Means Necessary event series.

EmbRace (@lseembrace) is LSE's BME staff network. EmbRace exists to raise awareness of and influence change around culture and diversity issues which affect LSE staff. It seeks to promote mutual understanding through equality, transparency, respect and recognition. The aim of the network is to provide support as well as development and networking opportunities for all members.

The Eden Centre (@EdenLSE), established in October 2019, is a pro-active, developmental centre of education expertise with a clear focus on academic staff development, curriculum enrichment and digital innovation.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECRT